Lint cleaner



T. RIDING LINT CLEANER Dec. 16, 1952 Filed April 19, 1950 www Patented Dec. 16,A 1952 LINT CLEANER Thomas Riding,` Sanford, v Maine,V assignorvtoY Goodall-Sanford," Inc., Sanford, Maine, 'a core.

poration of Maine.

Application April 1.9, 1950,. Serial No. 156.759

3 Claims. 1"..

Thisinvention relates to an article for removinglint by friction and adhesion rfrom garments, hats,lfabrics,.and other articles. The term lint as herein employed is to be understood as including bre, threads, hairs, dirt, and other foreign matter capable of removal by the application thereto of an article acting by friction an-dad.- hesion.

The object. of the invention is to provide a simple, efficient and inexpensive article for this purpose suitable for lint-.cleaning use. Such an article is particularly adapted for .individual use, for use in households, and for -distribution to hotels for the use of guests.

The object is further to make available insuch an article for the desired purpose the peculiar characteristics of mohair fibre and of a natural r. synthetic rubber compound with the mohair nbre particularly acting by friction andthe rubber compound by adhesion, although both materials to some extent perform both functions.

The object of the invention is further to present such an article in the form of a slightly stiff but flexible sheet having its base a warp cut pile fabric. Such an article may be of any size but is preferably of a relatively small size readily held in the hand.

The drawings illustrate a preferred construction of the article embodying the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a photographic reproduction in plan of a preferred form of the article;

Fig. 2 is a detail more or less diagrammatic and much enlarged. looking in the direction of the warps, and in a section taken adjacent a weft, of a preferred form of Weave of fabric employed in Fig. 1; and,

Fig. 3 is a view in perspective illustrating one repeat of this particular weave.

The article of this invention consists of a slightly stili but flexible sheet, the base of which is a warp cut pile fabric in which the pile warp is composed partly of mohair fibre and partly of fibre adherent to rubber. The advantage of the mohair bre is that it tends to stand erect, is fairly stiff, and presents at the face of the fabric fine brush-like points which are very effective, when supported, in effecting a brush-like action and thus in removing lint by friction. The warp cut pile fabric is also woven so as to present a multiplicity of voids between the pile tufts, with the voids open at the face of the fabric and profusely distributed throughout the fabric. This result may be secured by various methods of weaving in which preferably the pile tufts are of the V type. The form of weave illustrated is" the sameas that shown inv Fig; 6-of the patent'to Nutter No. 2,362,299, November A'7, 1944, infwhich the Wefts l, 2, 3, and 4, are interlaced by two sets of groundwarps, with the warps 5 of one setrelatively light, and the warps Ei of the other set relatively heavy, and with the pile tufts l and 8 ofthe V type.I While the height of the pile tufts may vary a heightv on the order of le" has beenV found most satisfactory, Such a weave acts to leavethe required voids between the pile tufts dispersed throughout the fabric. Fig. 2 illustratesalso mQre or less diagrammatically a section of Vsuch-a fabric taken adjacent theweft l,Y with'two transverse rows of the tufts 'l and Suche-construction leaves, as thus illust-ratedrelatively large voids open at the face of the, fabric as indicated-between the tufts 1 and l at the left,1and between the tufts 8 and 8. But any other suitable weave employing cut warp pile, in which nthe tuftsfare so distributed as to leave voids therebetween'profusely distributed throughout the fabric, may be employed.

The coating employed may be any suitable compound of rubber, or synthetic rubber, such as heretofore employed in the coating of fabric. A wide variety of such compounds for this purpose may be made up by anyone skilled in the rubber coating art. Applied to the face of the fabric the pile tufts are embedded therein and mainly retain the tuft-like formation resulting from weaving and leaving the voids therebetween open throughout.

The advantage of the employment in the pile warp along with the mohair libre of libre adherent to rubber is that the rubber compound is thus held firmly in place as an integral part of the article, whereas a rubber compound has little adhesion to mohair fibre alone. A suitable bre thus adherent to rubber compound is cellulose acetate and this combination of mohair bre and cellulose acetate bre, or other libre adherent to rubber, may be effected by mixing the two fibres in each pile warp or by forming some of the warps of mohair and some of the other bre, but preferably the best results are secured by composing eaclr pile Warp of both fibres preferably half of eac The tips of the mohair bre, which characteristically stands erect, project through the surface of the coating and thus present a fine 'brushlike surface throughout. This feature is indicated in Fig. 2 where the dotted line 9 indicates the surface of the coating and I0 the tips of mohair projecting therethrough.

Fig. 1 is a view taken by photographic process of a preferred form of the article enlarged about four times, but in which the Warps of the fabric run longitudinally and the wefts transversely of the figure. The rubber coating leaves a great majority of the voids between the pile tufts open at the face of the fabric and these voids profusely distributed throughout the fabric are plainly indicated in Fig. 1 by the black areas.

The rubber compound coating being applied to the face of the fabric only is chiefly limited to the pile tufts. It leaves the voids for the most part open throughout and While it reaches to the upper surface of the ground of the fabric it does not stiften the ground to the extent that it would if it were applied to the back surface of the ground.

The peculiar construction given to the article by reason of the voids is an important factor in its lint-cleaning function. While the article is stiff so as not to be fiabby, as in the case of an uncoated pile fabric, it is nevertheless flexible so as readily tc be brought into contact with irregular surfaces to be cleaned of lint. Further the face of the article has a certain roughened action which materially assists in this function of lint removal. In fact, all the features of the cut pile tufts, the mohair fibre, the rubber compound coating, and the profusely distributed open voids work together in securing the desired results, and the article has a highly efficient action in removing lint from garments and other articles. The article is preferably furnished in small sizes from four to six inches square so that it may be readily handled and used to brush oi lint. It is not only highly useful for individual use in the home and elsewhere, but it is Well adapted to be furnished in large numbers for use by guests of hotels, employees in various establishments, and other places.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is:

1. A lint cleaner for removing lint by friction and adhesion composed of a slightly stiff but flexible, sheet having a base of warp cut pile fabric in which the pile warp is composed partly of mohair fibre and partly of fibre adherent to rubber, in which the fabric presents, between the pile tufts, voids open at the face of the fabric and profusely distributed throughout the fabric, having a coating of rubber compound on the face embedding the pile tufts and leaving open the great majority of the voids, and having a multiplicity of the tips of the pile fibres projecting through the coating throughout the face of the fabric.

2. A lint cleaner having the construction defined in claim 1, in which the pile warp is composed partly of mohair fibre and partly of cellulose acetate bre and in which the coating is composed of a synthetic rubber compound.

3. A lint cleaner having the construction defined in claim l, in which each pile Warp is composed substantially half of mohair bre and half of cellulose acetate fibre and in which the coating is composed of a synthetic rubber compound.

THOMAS RIDING.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 528,730 Magoris Nov. 6, 1894 2,070,335 Hiers Feb. 9, 1937 2,112,123 Tenney Mar. 22, 1938 2,341,354 Blood Feb. 8, 1944 2,362,299 Nutter Nov. 7,1944 

